Brown says 76ers' rookie Noel still has a long ways to go'

Injured Sixers center Nerlens Noel warms up before a Nov. 1 game against the Wizards. Noel has come a long way since then, as he demonstrated for reporters after the team’s practice Thursday. But coach Brett Brown cautions that the rookie still has a long way to go before he’s able to return to the court. (Associated Press)

Thursday, he was taking left- and right-handed jump hooks. He was backing down an interior defender. He was spinning toward the basket. He was dunking, hanging from the rim.

In other words, the 76ers rookie was doing all the things to which he’s accustomed on a basketball court.

Except he was doing them all, basically, by himself. His opponent was an assistant coach putting little to no strain on him. His audience was a gaggle of reporters, and not thousands of fans. And his cuts weren’t at all labored, but far from full-speed.

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“Even though it’s just shadow-boxing,” Sixers coach Brett Brown said, “you can’t help but see how quick he jumps, his athleticism, his length. It is exciting to look out there and see what you project him being.”

Noel put on a show following Thursday’s practice. The 7-footer turned in nearly a half-hour workout with assistants Greg Foster and Billy Lange, displaying just how far he’s come since the sixth overall pick was acquired by the Sixers in a draft-day deal last June.

It’s less than a week to the one-year anniversary of when Noel tore the ACL in his left knee during his freshman season at Kentucky. He’s yet to play for the Sixers, and no timetable has been established regarding an exact time if or when he’ll play this season. Still, Noel continues “ticking boxes,” as Brown puts it, on the road to an eventual return.

“The message is two-fold: Yep, you’d be as excited as I am to project out what could be in Nerlens Noel. But don’t get tricked,” Brown said. “There’s a long ways to go. When it happens is anybody’s guess right now. Those are the two messages.”

The next step for Noel, according to Brown, is graduating from the light cuts and tempered post moves he’s making against Foster, and translating that into 5-on-0 scripting. There, Brown said, Noel will be able to make sharper cuts and truly test the strength of his knee and the muscles in his lower half.

Noel has to receive medical clearance before engaging in 5-on-0 workouts, then progressing to 1-on-1, and all the way to 5-on-5.

Until he’s cleared to participate in 5-on-5 practices, Noel is not obligated to speak to reporters. He has not done so since the team’s media day in September.

Noel’s workout Thursday was “a little bit more than what he’s been doing,” Brown said. His activities have been ramped up in recent weeks.

For a while, it seemed like all Noel had been doing on the court was attempting free throws and playing games of one-handed, set-shot HORSE with Brown.

The good news, said Brown, is all of those shooting-centric drills have vastly improved his shot. Noel’s form was what Brown identified early on as the most flawed aspect of the teenager’s game.

Additionally, Brown said he does not think Noel’s defensive game will take a hit due to zero game activity in the last 12 months. The rebounding, shot-blocking center within Noel will naturally return to form upon being cleared further, Brown said.

“Schematically, we do this rotation or this pick-and-roll. That’s going to take time,” Brown said. “Instinctively, you look at what he can do athletically, how he can get from A to B, how he gets up and down, jumping twice. It’s a rare skill (for) a person to hit a floor and go back up again. Those things are how he was born. That will come back instinctively.”